


Dryads, Sirens and other Mythical Creatures

by IceboundEmu



Category: LoveLink (Video Game)
Genre: Dryads - Freeform, F/M, Human Transformation, Humans vs. Non Humans, M/M, Sirens, Vampires
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2020-12-06
Updated: 2020-12-13
Packaged: 2021-03-10 00:49:40
Rating: Mature
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 2
Words: 4,581
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/27915553
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/IceboundEmu/pseuds/IceboundEmu
Summary: Jake is a Dryad creating his perfect family unit.Jonathan is a Siren enamoured by a human visitor to his territory.William is a Vampire questioning his life decisions.
Relationships: Jake Gonzales/Zayn Kassab, Jonathan Hayes/Ryan Byrne
Comments: 1
Kudos: 1





	1. Chapter 1 - A Dryad's Tale

**Author's Note:**

> As with most of my story ideas, this hit me when I least expected it and I reacted immediately by bouncing the idea off FireBirdie94, who listened patiently and then filled in the gaps in my knowledge on who should be what. Cue some research later on Dryads and you end up with this, the first chapter in a multi-work that's going to cover several different species of non human and their reaction to human encroachment on their world.
> 
> Set in a universe where such things are possible, assuming they don't already exist in this one.
> 
> Read and enjoy. Comments and suggestions are always welcomed.

_Once upon a time there was a tree spirit that fell in love with a human…_

Jake Gonzales looked at the line he’d just written, feeling his lips quirk up in a smile. What would read to his teacher as yet another reinterpretation of Romeo and Juliet held a deeper meaning for him. It could almost be autobiographical as far as he was concerned.

He regarding the sleeping form of Zayn Kassab fondly, his boyfriend still slept through these visits to Jake’s family home, blissfully unaware of the magic that had already bound him to this place and would eventually transform him into another Dryad, albeit bound to the same tree that had birthed Jake several centuries prior. The area had been completely different then, the college that surrounded their secluded little grove was a recent addition to the landscape, the entire area had been once been dense woodland, which under the actions of humans had shrunk over the years till his family had been forced to shield the area from gaze, lest they were obliterated.

Such had been the fate of so many Dryad families as Humans expanded their hold on the world. Those that hadn’t hidden in time had been wiped out, consigned to undeath as their trees were destroyed, invisibly haunting the buildings their wood had been used to build, or the families that had cut down their trees. Those who complained of the bad luck that afflicted their lives were probably unaware now of the Dryad’s curse behind it. There had been a time where humans had believed, those now written off as “fairy stories” by a generation who believed they had the answers to everything.

How little they knew. Most were oblivious to the Vampires and Werewolves that prowled in their midst, the Sirens that swam the seas, the Nymphs that inhabited any water source they could now find. Everywhere the humans touched they wiped out what didn’t suit their purposes and whilst there were some who called for this wanton destruction to cease their voices on whole were silenced by a majority who, though they claimed they cared for green spaces, were happy if it didn’t interfere with their ability to get from A to B in the shortest time possible. For most people contentment came if they had a nice little park to visit on a Sunday afternoon or a nature reserve to bring in the tourists. If anything non-human now showed its presence to the human population they’d probably find themselves in a zoo, or tied to a lab table under the knife…

Shaking himself from such morbid thoughts lest his negativity give Zayn nightmares, Jake allowed himself to dwell on the most positive thing to happen in his lifespan due to the human encroachment. By the time Zayn had come along Jake was growing tired of pretending to be a student at the college, he’d attended various courses across the years, and none had grabbed his interest until he’d spied the brown haired, dark eyed boy visiting the college on one of their open days. Jake had stopped aging in the human sense when he’d hit his twenties, though it had taken a century of growing to reach that point. 

It was easy to strike up conversation with the boy, Zayn, he’d quickly learned, then quiz him for the course he was enrolling on. The concept of creating stories that humans watched sounded fascinating, Jake had spent the summer reading up on it so that he could seem knowledgeable for the opening semester. He’d somewhat overstudied for the first year, his lecturer seemed overawed by his knowledge and his imagination when it came to thinking up storylines.

Zayn’s heart had been slightly tricker to secure, humans to Jake were notoriously competitive when it came to being the best at something, and his encyclopaedic knowledge of Zayn’s chosen subject had done little to endear him to the object of his affections. The entire experience was painful to Jake, who’d been smitten from the moment he’d first laid eyes on the dark-skinned Adonis and his family’s suggestion he just enamour the human with magic hadn’t sat right with him. After ensuring that he was assigned Zayn as a roommate it had taken weeks before Zayn had exchanged more than a cursory greeting with him. If later conversations with his now boyfriend were to be believed Zayn had been amazed that Jake even wanted to give him the time of day and had been just as lovestruck. Human courtship rituals were impossible to understand, and Zayn being the first who’d ever captured his interest made for a steep learning curve.

It had been a year of them dating before Jake had truly trusted the bond between them was strong enough to dare introducing Zayn to his family. Not that Zayn was aware the visit had happened, he’d sleepwalked to the hidden entrance of their family hollow and remained unconscious as his extended family had fussed over and examined him, before grudgingly accepting that he was an adequate match for Jake. Jake had watched the whole experience with his heart in his mouth, aware that if they found him lacking, they wouldn’t have hesitated to kill Zayn and raise him as a lesser foot soldier to serve in the army for an eternity (or at least until a death granted him his release). It was a relief to be granted permission to turn him gently and know he could retain his heart forever.

That had been two years ago now and he’d brought Zayn to this hollow almost every night since, Zayn slept in the shade of the tree and changed slowly (His aging had been one of the first things to cease, much to Jake’s relief), Jake worked on his coursework and sustained himself with the magic and comfort the place of his birth provided. Given his age now he could likely spend weeks or months away from the place without feeling any ill effects, which was lucky as Zayn had recently broached the subject of spending the upcoming Christmas Holiday with his family. Jake had been thrilled at the offer and quickly accepted, Zayn had seemed happy, though had already warned him that some of his extended family still had “issues” with his sexuality.

That was a trip for the future though, one in which Jake really hoped he wouldn’t be forced to rely on magic or cursing people for daring to hurt Zayn. Zayn’s powers wouldn’t fully awaken for a couple more years, though the magic that laid dormant in him now glowed under the surface of his skin as he slumbered here. If he took it upon himself, he’d probably also find his strength had improved somewhat as well, Jake had made sure to encourage Zayn to take up athletic pursuits so that his developing physique could be attributed to that. Heaven knew the student diet wasn’t conducive to a six pack. Zayn wouldn’t be affected by any absence from this place, having been changed by Jake he’d feed off the reserves Jake had built in but even that would be but a small drain. Some of his relatives had hundreds bound to their trees, though that was by virtue of their roles as “recruiters” to the Dryad rebirthing cause, turning humans into new Dryads to introduce new blood to the draining pools and repopulating areas where possible so what remained could be preserved. The trees and plant life humans took for granted took great effort to maintain and sustain, if Dryads allowed themselves to die out the greenery would wither and die, and the planet would starve. It was a delicate balance, one that would eventually reach a tipping point unless humans changed their ways and curbed their spread. Assuming one of the other races didn’t take matters into their own hands and do something to reduce the numbers drastically.

Killing humans was more of a Siren thing to do though. If rumours were to be believed they’d already started luring humans at sea to their deaths again, there simply seemed to be no other way to stop them fishing the dwindling fish stocks into extinction. Already there were newspaper articles bemoaning the human cost of the fish people consumed and several student movements springing up that encouraged people to avoid buying fish that wasn’t “ethically sourced” whatever that meant. Nor would the Sirens and Nymphs put up with their wards being intensively farmed to satisfy the human appetite for fish, fish farms up and down the country were reporting their stocks of fish were being killed or sabotaged and released into the wild by “unknown groups of animal activists”.

His knowledge of that branch of problems though was limited to whatever Jonathan told him whenever their paths crossed. Jonathan, a siren by birth, had farmed lobsters with his family for years before he’d been drawn to land, mainly to escape a factory built by humans on his shoreline in Maine which discharged its effluent directly into the sea, poisoning the surrounding area. Till Government legislation several generations later had forced the factory to clean up its act (and the surrounding area) Jonathan and his family had sought shelter with Jake’s family and the protection offered by their warding magic. Turning to their own side for assistance would have only resulted in a bloody battle for territory, sirens were loath to help their own kind when in trouble. Though they were now in the process of reclaiming their lost waters Jonathan still enjoyed visiting and regaling him with tales of what he was getting up to, though Jake was awaiting his next visit so he could find out more about the human doctor that appeared to have caught his friend’s eye (and heart, he mentally added, remember how Jonathan’s expression had mirrored his own when he thought about Zayn).

The electronic beeping of his watch drew his attention back to the present and he realised that once again four in the morning had rolled round and it was time to get Zayn back to the bed they shared so he woke up back in the flat and didn’t find anything amiss. Sighing softly at the passing of another night he muttered an incantation under his breath and Zayn rose to his feet and began a slow, plodding march back to the entrance of the grotto. Not letting him get too far away Jake gave his assembled family a hurried farewell, noting that those who also had lives to return to, took a cue from his departure to begin preparing for theirs. His Mother and Grandmother at least would remain here keeping the wards strong and in place, ready for their return tomorrow.

The college campus was deserted at such an unsociable hour, even the coffee shop had given up on its attempts to maintain a twenty-four-hour opening when they management realised that all they got in the early hours of the morning was people looking to relieve them of their takings. They returned to the student accommodation block without meeting another living soul, though Jake was sure at one point he saw a vampire prowling on hopeful lookout for an early morning meal. Though their eyes never met he was sure the Vampire was as aware of his presence as he was of it and the bond between him and Zayn that would spell a swift and bloody end for it should it decide to attack his (mainly) human companion. This was the first that had haunted the campus for a while, other Dryads had driven the previous interlopers off when they made the correlation between the discovery of bodies and the focus of human authorities on the area in which they were discovered. Somehow people going missing never attracted the same attention, the tried and tested excuse that those missing must have run from the pressure of college life and family expectation trotted out time and time again.

He’d tell the rest of the family tomorrow night and let them decide how to deal with it. Right now, his focus was on getting Zayn back into bed and settled and to deal with their other flatmate. Once he’d unlocked their flat and watched Zayn wander into their bedroom, he shut the front door and made sure it was secure, before heading to the spare room.

Charlie was sprawled across his bed, sound asleep, trapped there thanks to the enchantment Jake had woven around him before he’d headed out for the evening with Zayn, otherwise there was too much of a danger Charlie would wake from one of his frequent nightmares and find them missing from the flat. Zayn was reaching the point in his transformation where Jake would soon be able to leave him to change and focus his attentions onto Charlie, who’d make the perfect addition as baby to their family unit, in his initial visits by Jake’s campus dwelling family they’d all fallen in love with the pretty blonde, though his mother had noted Charlie appeared to have already been touched by Dryad magic from another family that had obviously wanted to claim him. Enquiries had shown the family in question had been wiped out by a new housing development that had destroyed their unshielded woodland before they’d had the chance to protect it. To undergo an integration into their family unit he’d first need to be cleansed of the touch of the other family, lest his magic become tainted with their influence.

It must have been another bad night as he jerked awake almost immediately when Jake ended the enchantment, gazing a Jake standing in his doorway with sleep clouded brown eyes, he reached out soundlessly in an appeal for comfort, and Jake responded, enveloping the boy in a hug and feeling the frightened teen move closer, the magic in his veins seething at the agitation caused by his bad dreams and Jakes thrumming with sympathy to calm it. Charlie wasn’t aware of the reason that Jake could so easily calm his racing heart, but the anxious teen had once confided he thought Jake gave the best hugs because they comforted him like no one else had been able to since his Grandmother passed away. Jake had privately filed that as Charlie possibly having part of his family in touch with the latent magic all humans had to some extent, there was nothing Jake could sense that would imply Charlie had any non-human ancestors.

Shifting slightly, he manoeuvred them both to their feet before lifting Charlie to carry him to the other bedroom. The smaller teen sighed happily at the action, already surrendering to sleep even as Jake settled him into bed sandwiched between Zayn and him before sliding in after him and preparing to feign sleep until their alarm went off, at which point their day could begin again.

Keeping watch over his makeshift family Jake allowed himself a brief moment of satisfaction.


	2. Chapter 2 - The Sirens Story

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Introducing Jonathan, making his debut as a Siren.

Sirens weren’t known for their redeeming qualities. 

Since time immemorial humans had told tales of sirens as beguiling women with enchanting voices who lured sailors to their doom on the rocks. Even in later generations, where the idea of Sirens had been romanticised into that of mermaids, again beautiful women who swum the sea and pined over a life on land they could never have there remained an undercurrent of fear when it came to what lurked in the deep depths. On a planet that was 70% water humans had barely scratched the surface of what life the waters contained, though they’d managed to spread prolifically across the available landmass, squeezing out the other species that made their homes there, headless of the damage they caused.

Still, it never hurt to have the benefit of a good turn of speed and teeth that could bite through a steel cable if needed. In his own misadventures with his brothers Jonathan had been forced to escape from more than his fair share of fishing nets, ruining the catches of more than one hapless fishing boat because if there were one thing sirens couldn’t afford it was discovery of their existence by humans. They didn’t have the benefit of the Dryad’s ability to hide behind magic, or the vampires for illusion and misdirection, their presence would be used as an excuse to study, dissect or entrap them to perform tricks for tourists. On one of his wanderings onto land Jonathan had experienced the privilege of being taken to something called “SeaWorld” by one of his human companions. What he’d seen there would probably haunt his nightmares for years to come and had cemented his parent’s warnings that anything human was to be avoided.

Life for him was simple, wake up, help tend to the lobsters, patrol the borders of their territory for intruders, got to bed, sleep, repeat ad nauseum. Aside from the occasional trip to the surface world or maintaining contact with Jake to find out what was going on at the college campus his life was boringly predictable. The highlight of his months spent at sea would be the visits from some of his more militant relatives and their tales of the fish farms they’d destroyed or fishing crews they’d taken out.

It was all well and good until he’d first laid eyes on Ryan. Then his heart had near leapt out of his chest and all he could think of since was what he wanted to do to the beautiful redhead. He’d had no interest in any of the humans that had previously inhabited the home, hell, some of them had probably drowned at the hands of his family in historic accidents, still, the coast acted as some sort of pull to the tourists that flocked to the area now that factory that had dominated the landscape had been forced to clean up their act and stop dumping directly into the sea. 

Jonathan had been sunbathing when their paths had first crossed, thankfully in his humanoid form, because Ryan had literally fallen over him in his distraction. The object causing his lack of attention, his mobile, which he’d previously been holding to his ear had bounced a few times as it flew from his grip, before settling itself in the sand, where the screen flickered a few times, then died. Jonathan chose to ignore it, instead moving to help the stunned male back up to his feet.

“Ow! Sorry…oh damn! My phone…work is going to be so mad…”

Keeping quiet Jonathan let himself enjoy the awkward babbling, assuming the human would eventually register his presence and introduce himself. Sure, enough the redhead stopped babbling and blushed as he looked Jonathan up and down, considering his state of dress, or rather lack of it.

“Oh, sorry. I didn’t mean to disturb you. Didn’t see you there. I’m Ryan. Don’t mean to be rude, but do you have a towel or something? It’s kind of distracting.”

Right, humans tended to be funny about being covered when interacting with others. Sirens weren’t keen on anything that impeded swimming speed, and outer coverings had that effect, besides which the primary sexual organs on a siren were kept internally until required, not like in human form where as a male they hung outside and couldn’t be retracted. Trying not to laugh at his companion’s discomfort Jonathan took care picking up a towel he’d been lying on (he’d liberated it on a previous visit to the beach and added it to his stash) and wrapped it round his waist as requested. The look of relief on Ryan’s face was immediate, and the blush he’d been sporting lessened somewhat, to Jonathan’s disappointment.

“I’m Jonathan by the way.”

His gentle poke at the lack of query to his identity caused Ryan to blush again harder. Ryan was obviously a walking mass of complexes, if the way he rubbed his neck was anything to go by.

“Heh, nice to meet you Jonathan. Sorry I tripped over you.”

Jonathan flashed him what he hoped was a winning smile before answering.

“It’ll make a good story to tell our kids. How on our first meeting you fell for me.”

He punctuated it with a wink in Ryan’s direction, watching as the flush spread across the entirety of Ryan’s face and even tips of his ears glowed red.

“Wow, so we just met and already you’re planning to have kids with me? I’m flattered, but I think we’ve got the wrong parts if this is just going to be between the two of us…”

The redhead trailed off again, possibly as the internal voice that humans seemed to possess pointed out to him that his response wasn’t the most socially acceptable one. Again, it seemed to be another thing humans allowed themselves to become obsessed by, as though gender mattered when it came to who to chose to spend your life with. Love was love as far as Jonathan was concerned it didn’t matter what organs you possessed, and there was more than one way to become a parent.

“Foster, adopt or surrogate not options for you?”

“It’s not that, I’ve just never met someone before who talked about starting a family with me only a few minutes in.”

“Wow, you must associate with a lot of very stupid people. I’d have snapped you up by now.”

“Um…thanks? I have to go now, that’s was work on the phone and I’m sort of needed. So, bye for now I guess?”

Still as red as a tomato Ryan stooped to grab his phone, before turning on his heel and jogging off across the sand back towards the house. Jonathan watched him go with interest, wondering when he’d next get the chance to run into him.

Their initial meeting had taken place two weeks ago, and though they’d not really had quality time together since Jonathan had ensured he kept an eye on the redhead whilst he strolled the shore, having learnt that Ryan’s clumsiness wasn’t a one off, he was extremely accident prone. In the latest accident he’d managed to slip on a seaweed covered rock he’d been climbing across, hitting his head on a rock and falling into the water.

Jonathan had reacted on instinct, which in hindsight would probably be the death of him, scooping Ryan up and taking him to one of the underwater caves he’d been converting into his own lair, ensuring that Ryan’s mobile had a fatal accident in the process so that he couldn’t use it to call for help (Jonathan had to admit he wasn’t sure how well mobiles worked underground, but he couldn’t take the chance of putting his actual family in danger). From there it was simply a case of placing him in the one with a reasonably large pocket of air but no direct access to the surface (nor were any of the meandering tunnels from it large enough to allow human access in or out) and waiting for him to wake up.

Which, given time, Ryan duly had, and everything had been fine for about thirty seconds until he realised that he was trapped and started screaming. Jonathan had winced at the noise, pulling himself out of the water and clamping a hand across Ryan’s mouth to cut off the sound that went through him like a knife, realising his mistake when he saw Ryan’s eyes widen as he became aware it wasn’t a human body lying on top of his. Jonathan yelped himself as Ryan managed an extremely well-placed kick that would leave a bruise, rolling back off and into the water to avoid being assaulted further. Ryan skittered away from the waterline, staring at him with wild eyes.

“Holy shit! What are you?”

Jonathan sighed; this wasn’t anything like the conversation he’d hoped to have. Well, he’d have to make do with what he got he supposed.

“I’m a siren.”

Jonathan crossed his arms on the lip of the ledge that led to the water and rested his chin on them, watching Ryan’s reactions carefully and hoping his next course of action didn’t involve a kick to the face. A broken nose wasn’t pleasant in any circumstances, a broken nose from a human he’d brought into their lair with the intention of making him his mate would probably be ripped apart by the rest of the family when they found out. The bruise forming from the initial struggle was a reasonable reaction to a sudden fright, further attacks were not.

“You lure sailors to their death?”

Ryan’s face twisted with confusion.

“Not personally, I raise lobsters with my family.”

“As pets? Or to eat?”

“Do human farmers raise cows as pets?”

“Do you grow seaweed as well?”

“Why would we need to farm seaweed? It grows everywhere.”

“Aren’t there ones that taste better than others?”

Jonathan thought a little before answering. He knew humans grew food crops, but that usually came at the expense of clearing vast swathes of land in order to obtain the area needed to grow the amounts required. Which in turn meant everything in that area suffered as a result.

“But if you grow types of seaweed where it’s not native to it messes with the entire ecosystem and the fish suffer and leave, or worse they die out.”

Noticing the expression on Ryan’s face he moved to field off the next question before it was asked.

“No, I can’t talk to the fish, nor do we engage in musically choreographed acts with them.”

Ryan giggled a little at this.

“You’ve seen Disney movies then?”

“When I first met you, I was in a human form, I’m rather good and blending in when I want to. So yes, I’ve seen what humans think we get up to.”

“Oh, right. Forgot about that. Can I see you again? Did I hurt you?”

Jonathan dragged himself out of the water and onto land, pulling his tail behind him. The area Ryan had hit was darkening in colour already compared to the surrounding flesh and Jonathan couldn’t help but hiss as Ryan ran inquisitive fingers across the injured area, causing Ryan to flinch back as he took in the pointed teeth that Jonathan possessed in this form. The next time he passed his hands across he took care to avoid the injury, instead exploring the dorsal fin on Jonathan’s lower back before focussing on the caudal fins on his tail. Jonathan basked in the attention, before realising he might be enjoying it a little too much, glad he’d chosen to lie belly down. He cleared his throat to attract Ryan’s attention, who took in his flushed expression and seemed to get the message, withdrawing his hands and flushing himself.

“Sorry about that, it was starting to get a little too nice…”

God, if there was a way this could get any more embarrassing Jonathan didn’t want to try and think of it. Then, as proof the universe hated him, his elder brother made an appearance, hooting in amusement when he realised that Jonathan had company.

“Oh my God, you have a human boyfriend. I’m so telling Mom.”

With that he was gone before Jonathan could respond, probably making a beeline for wherever their parents were, as promised. He groaned at the realisation they’d probably turn up any minute now.

“So, I guess I get to meet your parents then?

“Yeah, if we’re lucky they won’t kill you on sight.”

**Author's Note:**

> Got someone you think should feature in this and an idea of what they should be? Drop me a message, I'm always happy to talk your ear off.


End file.
